Father schools son in SUPR late model racing lesson

KILGORE, TX (July 17, 1999) - It was an Ingalls family reunion of sorts in victory lane as Doug Ingalls held off his son Jason to take his first O'Reilly Southern United Professional Racing (SUPR) victory of 1999. Doug Ingalls in just his second race in the newly renumbered #47 GRT sponsored by Day Motorsports, ran strong all race long before snagging the lead from Duke Whiseant on lap 31. Whiseant moved back by on lap 36 before Doug pulled back in front for good the next time by. Joining Doug in victory lane was his son Jason, the 1997 SUPR Rookie of the Year. Jason completed an impressive run to second after starting 20th in the feature. Jason's run was rewarded with the Lloyd Wild Jr. Logging Hard Charger award for picking up the most positions in the feature.

After the race Doug relayed that "the car worked good." Nonetheless, he was surprised when he found himself racing Duke for the lead. "All I remember is seeing Ricky (Ingalls) and Kenny (Merchant) driving away from us." But the battle between Duke and Doug shifted to a battle for the lead as first Ricky Ingalls fell out with a magneto failure on lap 23 and then Kenny Merchant took over briefly until he got together with the lapped car of Terry Brenan on lap 24. The contact sent Merchant's front end high up into the air before it came crashing down to earth with extensive damage.

Doug at first felt he couldn't catch Whiseant but his higher groove came around late in the race. "All of a sudden my car started getting better and better. I had a bad push in it but I finally learned to compensate for it, the more I compensated the faster I got." Another driver taking full advantage of the high groove was Jason Ingalls who didn't even enter into the top 5 until lap 32 but once he got to the front he wasted little time moving forward. He got by early race leader Rob Litton for 4th on lap33 and Jay Blair for 3rd on lap 35. He got by Duke for 2nd with 2 to go but was unable to get by his father before the checkers waved. And while Jason would have loved to grab that first O'Reilly SUPR victory he said, "I don't mind finishing second to my dad. I'd finish second to him easier than anyone else."

31 Late Models were on hand and Donald Watson earned the GRT Top Qualifier award with his victory in the 44th heat race. Other heat wins went to Rob Litton, Doug Ingalls, Ricky Ingalls, and Marlon Wild taking the heat victories while Duke Whiseant and Wayne Brooks took the Last Chance wins. The 40-lap feature saw 6 different lead changes among five drivers.


Official Results:
1. Doug Ingalls
2. Jason Ingalls
3. Duke Whiseant
4. Jay Blair
5. David Ashley
6. Rib Litton
7. Donald Watson
8. Jon Mitchell
9. Michael Coleman
10. Rusty Cummings
11. Wade Cleveland
12. Marlon Wild
13. Ray Ingalls
14. Wayne Brooks
15. Jeff Shaver
16. Dave Siegert
17. Terry Brenan
18. Kenny Merchant
19. Ricky Ingalls
20. Steve Latson
21. Ronny Adams